Advertising my items for wedding hire

paddylonglegs

Hi folks,

I wanted to get some feedback/advice from people on here as most of you will have a good idea on how the wedding prep game goes.

I'm a metalworker and have created some items that would look great at churches and venues. I don't want to go into too much detail as it will be construed as advertising. Let's just say the main use is candle related. These are expensive to produce so selling them wouldn't really work, but I thought hiring them would be a good idea. They would be delivered to the venue then collected next day

I wanted to find out what the best way would be to advertise and get the idea out there. Do most people go through Google and straight to websites? Or would a Facebook page be enough? Are the wedding fairs a good route and what do people expect from these? And should I write to all the venue coordinators as they might have a way of advertising it to potential customer?

I'm not hugely business minded so it would be great to hear your thoughts on how I could go about this.

Thanks for your time

Faith

I think your thread might be better suited to the entrepreneurial forum. We would only really have expertise from a purchasing point of view, not from a supplying or vendor one. Would you like me to move this over there?

screamer

Its actually a flooded market with anyone at all hiring out stuff they bought for their own wedding day for a few quid. apart from advertising you need to look into insurance. So many people think they can just hire out lanterns candle stands etc and never think of insurance until something happens. Guests can trip over lanterns or bang into stands and of course hot wax and flames there too. Ive seen far too many fire and trip hazards at weddings. Look into insurance first it's a must for any such business and the cover needs to be a substantial figure in litigious Ireland.

paddylonglegs

Faith wrote: »

I think your thread might be better suited to the entrepreneurial forum. We would only really have expertise from a purchasing point of view, not from a supplying or vendor one. Would you like me to move this over there?

Hi faith,
It may be a better suited to that forum, I thought that the people on this forum might have and idea on where best to advertise based on their experience i.e. If they are renting other items, where did they see them and how was the experience. I understand if the forum isn't suitable though

Redchairs

Hi, for what it's worth there are companies whose whole business is renting out items for parties and weddings. You could approach those companies to see if you could sell your pieces to them?

paddylonglegs

screamer wrote: »

Its actually a flooded market with anyone at all hiring out stuff they bought for their own wedding day for a few quid. apart from advertising you need to look into insurance. So many people think they can just hire out lanterns candle stands etc and never think of insurance until something happens. Guests can trip over lanterns or bang into stands and of course hot wax and flames there too. Ive seen far too many fire and trip hazards at weddings. Look into insurance first it's a must for any such business and the cover needs to be a substantial figure in litigious Ireland.

Hi Screamer, I actually didn't know people did that, thanks for the heads up. I'm hoping though that these would be a bit more eye catching than lanterns that cost a couple of hundred euro that people would have bought directly. It would be more of a statement piece. Great advice on the insurance, its something I would look into

clint_silver

advertise. adverts.ie has a wedding area that would be relatively low cost to get an entry point. the big sites like weddingsonline and mrs2be and onefabday I find are pricey for what they are and without having an established market its a gamble depending on your advertising budget.

Id get in contact with some of the big wedding planners and show them your wares, theyre always looking for new ideas and if its an upmarket demographic youre going after youd have better chance of exposure.

The wedding fairs run from 150-200 in a local hotel to 1500-2000e and upwards for a booth at the big fairs in rds and citywest. Mileage may vary there in how you do.

If you really want to have a go at it though, you will need an advertising budget to kick it off. Best of luck with it

I always go to done deal first when I'm looking for something. Not that expensive to advertise so you could always trial it for a month or two and see what responses you get.

Best of luck

Faith

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Hi faith,
It may be a better suited to that forum, I thought that the people on this forum might have and idea on where best to advertise based on their experience i.e. If they are renting other items, where did they see them and how was the experience. I understand if the forum isn't suitable though

Mod note: thread moved